Students' intercultural competence and reading ability are an essential aspect of their education. Intercultural competence, defined as respect for the cultural views, beliefs, and traditions of others, is a necessary skill for effective and appropriate communication. Using a multidimensional model, this study investigated the effect of intercultural competence among Thai junior high school students on their resilience, well-being, and attitudes toward reading. A 2018 Program for International Student Assessment data set relating to 7,411 students from 289 schools in Thailand was analyzed using structural equation modeling. The research findings suggest that improved intercultural competence strengthens resilience, well-being, and attitudes toward reading.

This study aims to describe the abstraction of epistemic action, which includes recognition, building-with and construction in junior high school students with low spatial ability in constructing cube nets. The research method used in this study is an exploratory qualitative method with the primary data in the form of interviews with two junior high school students with low spatial abilities who were selected using an inclusive purposive sampling technique. Based on data analysis on the two subjects, it was found that the two subjects constructed a cube net of 14 plain cube nets, 14 colour cube nets and 14 cube nets with variations of domino motifs. In the activity of constructing the cube nets, the two subjects used different epistemic actions; subject SR1 constructed the cube nets as a whole using only two epistemic actions, referred to as recognition and building-with. The activity of subject SR2 in constructing cube nets as a whole uses more epistemic actions that are tiered and interrelated with each other, where the first action that occurs is recognition, the second is building-with, and the third is construction.

Evaluation of the K-13 curriculum (2013 Curriculum) on the value of the national mathematics examination “Nilai Ebtanas Murni” (NEM) in every State Junior High School needs to be carried out thoroughly in order to improve the quality of education. This study uses spatial analysis to evaluate the curriculum and determine the development of NEM scores in the school year. Furthermore, the kriging interpolation method via surfer software was used to generate scores. The results showed that the 2015 K-13 mathematics curriculum did not give good results based on the 36-68 NEM score interval for the entire Pekanbaru area. In addition, the curriculum only gives good results for a small area in the north and south. In 2016, the curriculum which was accompanied by the entry of the new education unit level curriculum “Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan” (KTSP) showed a significant change in the NEM value. Although most of these areas experienced an increase in scores, the intervals still ranged from 36-68. The total revision of the K-13 curriculum carried out and used in 2017 showed a significant increase in scores for all regions with an interval of 68-84 scores. In conclusion, this study shows that the revision of the K-13 curriculum is the right step to produce quality mathematics learning.

Due to the pandemic in many countries, schools were closed in 2020. Therefore, education was suspended, and distance education was started. During the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, teachers gave lessons online in virtual classrooms. In this study, Scale of Attitudes Towards Online Formative Assessment (S-AOFA) for teachers conducting online and distance courses was developed, and the teachers' attitudes were examined with respect to demographic variables. In the study conducted in the mixed-design method, qualitative and quantitative data were collected for the scale development and survey. Data were obtained from 369 teachers (science teacher, mathematics teacher, classroom teacher, and teachers in other fields) working in school in Turkey. S-AOFA was made up of 20 items and two factors as a five-point Likert-type. When the teachers' attitudes towards online formative assessment (AOFA) was examined, it was found that the mean for the factor of "Assessment Systems" was lower than that of the "Assessment Approaches". In addition, the findings revealed that there was no significant difference in the teachers' AOFA in terms of gender and that no significant difference existed in AOFA with respect to the school levels of the teachers (elementary, secondary and high school). Moreover, the results demonstrated that there was a low negative significant relationship between the teachers' AOFA and the number of students in which virtual lessons were given online. Lastly, there was a low level positive significant relationship between the teachers' AOFA and the in-class participation percentages of the students who were taught online in virtual classrooms. S-AOFA could be used by researchers in different studies in future.

Research shows that children's reading proficiency levels in the early grades positively correlate with students' future academic achievement. This study provides the first-ever analysis of reading achievement trajectories for a cohort of students in grades 3 to 5 in 2014–17 in Hawaii schools. Hawaii serves a diverse student population whose characteristics differ in ways often overlooked by standard US racial and ethnic classifications. Our analysis shows that Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students not only start at a lower reading proficiency than their peers in Grade 3, but the achievement gap widens as they move from Grade 3 to Grade 5. Moreover, we find a strong association between students' third-grade performance and reading achievement growth rate above and beyond all other factors in our longitudinal model. The difference in performance patterns between student subgroups across the elementary grades can serve as an accurate baseline for yearly monitoring. In light of our findings, we discuss implications for policy and practice.

South Africa, like other countries in the world, went into lockdown due to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) which meant closure of venue-based exam centres, university libraries and academic offices for more than three months. This encounter forced higher institutions of learning to review and reconfigure their assessment practices and conduct alternative assessment practises like timed exams, take home exams, randomised multiple-choice examinations and an online portfolio. Over and above that South Africa experienced load shedding (interruptions to electricity supply) and connectivity challenges which impacted the online examinations. This paper explores the experiences of lecturers whilst administering online examination at a South African Open Distance e-Learning university during COVID-19. Data collected from the lecturers who administered online examination through semi-structured interviews. Thematic analyses were used to analyse the data. Lecturers reported on student challenges related to time allocation, exam security, internet connectivity and data access, digital incompetency and support received from the information communication technology (ICT) department. Academics’ reflection suggests that the system and students were not fully prepared and ready to write the online examination. The researchers propose continued technical and technological education and support for academics and students. Therefore, in line with these experiences, it is important to conduct further the research.

Learning engagement is one of the most important issues facing online learning, which has many distractions beyond the teacher’s control and management. This study examined teachers’ observations of their students’ engagement in online learning and their efforts to engage them. Teachers can evaluate different factors and conditions that affect students’ perceptions, engagement, motivation, and achievement. Language learning is influenced by several factors, such as teachers’ rapport and interaction with their students, students’ interaction and collaboration, and their engagement with social activities in learning situations. This qualitative multi-case study collected data from five language teachers by semi-structured interviews, teachers’ self-reports, and observational notes about their experiences of students’ engagement in their online lessons. It lasted for 15 teaching weeks in a Saudi intermediate school during the second semester of 2020-2021. The thematic analysis results in four main categories; (a) teachers’ challenges, (b) students’ responsibilities, (c) environment and system, and (d) attitude and excuses. These categories are built on 11 themes that provide insights into the factors, challenges, and threats, which influence learning engagement in online courses for teachers and students. The study recommends some techniques to maintain the learning engagement and provides some suggestions for future research.  

This research’s aim was to explore the role of cognitive flexibility in mediating the effect of intrinsic motivation on the creativity of junior high school students. A creativity scale, an intrinsic motivation inventory and a cognitive flexibility inventory were utilized to investigate a sample of junior high school students in Shaanxi Province in western China. 765 valid questionnaires were collected and analyzed using the structural equation model (SEM). The SEM analysis showed that intrinsic motivation and cognitive flexibility have significantly positive impacts on junior high school students’ creativity. Furthermore, a full model revealed that cognitive alternatives and cognitive control mediate the relationship intrinsic motivation and creativity, and the mediation effect of cognitive alternatives is significantly greater than that of cognitive control. In general, the current research suggests that the impact of intrinsic motivation on junior high school students’ creativity is mediated by cognitive flexibility, and its results amplify prior scholars’ research results and give educators an inspiration how to cultivate creativity for the middle school students.

Taiwan has been promoting its national health insurance (NHI), which provides people with appropriate medical resources; however, health insurance education is missing from schools, and teachers lack relevant teaching abilities. This study describes the development of the health insurance education empowerment program (HIEEP) to promote effective teaching on educators. A two-group parallel-controlled trial was conducted with health education teachers, in which participants learned to discuss its importance through demonstration and practice. The questionnaire measured their teaching effectiveness in HIEEP using a baseline measurement and a one-week follow-up measurement. Of 196 people that started the trial, 186 completed it. The intervention effects were evaluated using the Johnson-Neyman method. The results showed that in the experimental group, the program raised all teachers’ variable scores, which evaluated health insurance meaning, teaching competence, self-determination, and impact. The empowerment program can provide teachers will allow for more effective health insurance education.

The importance of literacy is a competency requirement that must be possessed by students to face competition in the 21st century. This is directly related to the extent to which students' scientific thinking processes understand and solve problems. This study aims to describe how literacy is trained in learning in junior high schools. The approach used is a qualitative approach with the type of phenomenological research. The participants in this study were 5 junior high school teachers who teach in the Special Region of Yogyakarta. Data was collected through virtual interviews with the help of the Google Meet platform. The data analysis model used is the model of Bogdan and Biklen with data collection procedures, data reduction, verification and conclusion. The results showed that literacy was trained on students with the habit of reading textbooks for 15 to 30 minutes every day by reporting their readings in student journals, teacher efforts in changing project and problem-based learning methods and strategies according to student conditions, and teacher habituation in providing HOTS level questions to train students' critical thinking processes, balance theoretical understanding and understand the surrounding environment.

Teacher professionalism is needed for quality education. The current practice for increasing teacher professionalism is to use skill applications. However, the implementation of skill applications has, in fact, not succeeded in significantly increasing teacher professionalism. This study aims to explain the importance of an effective skill application model coupled with a comprehensive approach to raise the level of teacher competence. This study is qualitative with its data derived from observations, interviews, and questionnaires. The paper's research findings show that existing programs are not sufficiently enhancing teacher competencies and professionalism. Various teacher professional development activities are conducted; however, there has been no continuous post-activity follow-up. These professional development activities tend only to fulfill the administrative requirements for teacher promotion. What is needed is a comprehensive and continuous teacher professionalism assessment model, which is underpinned by a system of mentoring. This study has implications for evaluating the teacher's professional competencies. More comprehensive skill applications need to be formulated as part of an integrated, sustainable, and mentoring [terpadu, sustainable, pendampingan-TSP] approach to develop teacher professionalism significantly.

This study aimed to develop an instrument to assess science teacher candidates’ professional and pedagogical competence in the Industrial revolution 4.0. The instrument consisted of 30 questions and was used in the main study, which was analyzed using the Rasch model to unravel the reliability and empirical validity. The questions were developed based on a predetermined grid including the skills and literacy aspects used in the industrial revolution 4.0. The 30 revised questions were then tested on 60 students of Science Education at two State universities in Indonesia who were in their third year of study times. The Rasch model was employed to test its reliability and empirical validity that included Wright map analysis, item difficulty level, distractor analysis, and item suitability with the Rasch model. The results showed that the reliability value of the professional aspect was .95 and classified as an excellent category. Moreover, the pedagogic aspect obtained .93 and was classified as a very good category. Only one question was the most difficult and did not fit the Rasch model, while the others already fitted. This reliable and valid instrument is suggested to be useful in assessing pre-service science teachers’ competence.

This research aims to develop the product of the life skill education program (LSEP) which is accurate, credible, and effective. This research used the Plomp model. The model covers the input, process, output, outcome and consists of instrument, scoring guidance, and good or bad criteria. The instruments used in the model are the questionnaire, observation sheet and interview guide. The content validity of the questionnaire and observation sheet was proved by expert judgement and continued by using the Aiken Formula, the construct validity of the questionnaire was proved by the construct validity using the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The content validity of the questionnaire and observation sheet involved 9 validity experts. The questionnaire construct was done in two steps; the first step involved 65 students analyzed using EFA and the second step involved 199 students analyzed with CFA. The reliability of the observation sheet and questionnaire was estimated by using the Cronbach Alpha technique. The result of the trial model and its analysis shows that all the instruments are good. LSEP model is tested by involving 15 students in the course and training institute. The result of the trial model shows that the model is effective because the users explains that the model is: a) comprehensive, covering many components and sub component programs such as the input, process, output, outcome, b) practical, simple and easy in usage, c) economical, not needing much cost, energy, and time, also d) supported by valid and reliable data collection instrument.

This study aimed to determine the influence of critical thinking skills on misconceptions using a five-tier instrument in mixed-method research. The sampling technique used is simple random sampling. The data collection instrument used a critical thinking skills questionnaire, a misconception test of electric field material, and interviews. Data collection begins with quantitative data, providing a misconception test sheet and a critical thinking skills questionnaire. After that, the researcher took qualitative data in the form of interviews to strengthen data that had been obtained previously. Then from the results of the regression coefficients, there is an influence of critical thinking skills on misconceptions. The descriptive results of critical thinking skills data show that the mean of critical thinking skills is 68.50, which means that students' critical thinking skills are in a good category. Then from the results of the regression coefficients, there is an effect of critical thinking skills on a misconception, with the probability number obtained being significant. The limitations of this study are only to identify and see the impact.

To improve college students’ achievement and success rate in the College Algebra course, a new program called Link2Success (L2S) was implemented in several sections of the course at the study’s university. The program required students to increase their class time to six hours. Three of those hours were spent with certified tutors who helped students with the content preview and homework preparation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the Link2Success program based on the achievement of College Algebra students. One College Algebra class with embedded L2S and one College Algebra class without L2S were randomly chosen and the grades of several assignments and exams were compared. A survey was given to L2S students to explore their experience and opinion about the program. Another survey was given to non-L2S students to find out if they felt that learning with an L2S program was beneficial to them and would have improved their grades. The results showed that L2S did not have a positive effect on the College Algebra students’ achievement. However, L2S students felt more confident and rated the program highly where as non-L2S students felt they would have benefited from the program if it were implemented in their class.

The purpose of this qualitative research is to analyze the reflective thinking process of prospective elementary teacher in numeracy problems in terms of their mathematical disposition. The subjects in this study were 26 prospective elementary school teachers who had attended elementary mathematics lectures. The focus in this research is the process of mathematical reflective thinking in solving story problems of a two-variable linear equation system in terms of the level of mathematical disposition. The research instrument consisted of a disposition questionnaire, a reflective thinking ability test and the researcher himself as the main instrument. Good mathematical reflective thinking skills are supported by disposition, by constantly monitoring one's own performance, reflecting on one's own performance, reasoning on one's own performance, considering the overall situation, the habit of analyzing the relationship between variables, being flexible in various alternative solutions to mathematical problems and trying to solve mathematical problems. From the results of this study, lecturers can develop learning media, scaffolding, or teaching materials that accommodate different dispositional abilities of prospective teachers that can be used to improve the reflective thinking process.

This study explores international graduate students' experiences of content-language integrated learning (CLIL) at a university in Korea. This study focuses on a course that allows international students to simultaneously learn the Korean language and content knowledge. Korean as a medium of instruction (KMI) was applied to 16 international graduate students in two graduate courses during the 2021 Fall semester. The survey examines the perception and satisfaction of students' experiences in the KMI classes. Among survey participants, interview applicants were selected for in-depth interviews. Study results showed that international graduate students developed content knowledge through KMI classes. They also improved their Korean language ability. Overall, international students were generally satisfied with KMI classes. However, it is difficult for international students to dramatically enhance their Korean academic proficiency within one semester. Recommendations are provided on effectively conducting CLIL classes, such as KMI for international students in higher education.

The purpose of the study was to identify how the designed instructional model moderated the vocabulary-related anxieties in students when they communicated in the media internationally. The methodological approach used in the study was aimed at controlling and manipulating variables which were as follows: The level of vocabulary anxiety related to communication in the media, cultural intelligence, and English vocabulary level. The study relied on quantitative and qualitative methods to gather the experimental data and answer the research questions. Insufficient vocabulary was found to be one of the key factors of anxieties in students when they communicated in the media internationally. The major sub-factors of the vocabulary-related anxieties in the students when they communicated in the media internationally (as perceived by the respondents) were spontaneous interaction with the native speakers, guessing the meaning of the words from the context, and paraphrasing ideas using synonyms. The instructional-purpose use of the predesigned vocabulary lists, learning them using the Telegram bot, talking to the foreign speakers in the media, self-analysis, and analysis by peers were proven to be capable to moderate the vocabulary-related anxieties in students when they communicate in the media with the foreign speakers.

A transition from pre-service training programs to teaching is a dramatic and somehow painful experience for novice teachers. The question is what difficulties novice teachers face and how they negotiate their professional identity to cope with difficulties and find joys in their career. This study is aimed to investigate novice teachers’ professional identity reconstruction, from their imaged-identities to their practiced identities. The use of semi-structured interviews collected data from four Vietnamese English as a foreign language (EFL) novice teachers. According to the data, cue-based was the most common type of novice teachers’ imagined identity. Regarding the practiced identities, the interviewees reported different professional identity reconstructions in the first five years of teaching practice. The participants’ excerpts enlisted some challenges that the novices faced such as students’ learning attitudes, working environments, or unorganized colleagues. Based on the research findings, some solutions were proposed in order to help novice teachers get through their difficult times at the very beginning of their career.

This work describes the design and validation of a questionnaire to assess the expectations of higher education professors regarding virtual education (CEDVES). The sample included 546 professors, 299 men (54.66%) and 247 women (45.23%), from different scientific disciplines of a university in Chile. The final version consisted of 38 items answered using a five-point Likert scale. Nine factors were identified from the exploratory factor analysis. This configuration accounts for 75% of the variance. The structure of the instrument was studied using confirmatory factor analysis. It was found that nine factors produced a good fit, derived from a hierarchical solution in which all these factors depend on a factor of second general order. Each of the scales, like the general factor, present good indicators of reliability. The analysis indicates that this questionnaire has adequate validation and could be broadly used in higher education.